Craven Street: Ben Franklin in London Audiobook

Originally broadcast nationwide in 1993, this meticulously researched five-part historical drama is being published by Blackstone to commemorate Benjamin Franklin’s 300th birthday, January 2006. It reveals the multi-faceted, complex Franklin’s little-known adventures in London before the Revolution. For fifteen years, he lived on Craven Street off the Thames, where he established a surrogate family, began his autobiography and became America’s most famous citizen. As tensions heated up between the Mother Country and her colonies, Franklin became embroiled in intrigue, espionage and even a duel. The British government believed him “the head of all the rebels” and set out to have him hanged. He escaped only hours before arresting magistrates came banging on his Craven Street door. He was at sea sailing for home when “the shot heard ’round the world” rang out at Lexington.

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“What brings this to life is a soundtrack that mixes noise, music, narrative, snatches of dialogue, and other effects to conjure up a panorama of London life in your mind that no amount of visual detailing on TV could have achieved.”

— Christian Science Monitor